readers

Use familiar words—words that your readers will understand and not words they will have to look up. No advice is more elementary, and no advice is more difficult to accept. When we feel an impulse to use a marvellously exotic word, let us lie down until the impulse goes away. James J. Kilpatrick

Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it. John Hersey

Give readers adequate room to breathe if you’re giving them air they’ve never breathed. Kiese Laymon

Paperback paradox: volume falls as value rises SEP 18, 2025BY ALEX CALL Freida McFadden © Mira Whiting Bookshops across the country might be starting to rejig their displays in an effort to make room for publishers’ switch of focus to hardbacks, but we should pause before then to say goodbye...

The quote 'Write for the top ten percent of your readers' is attributed to Stephen King. After giving it a tremendous amount of thought I bore this in mind in my own writing for novels like Scenes From A Dying Planet and my WIP. Before I write anything on Litopia about my thoughts on this quote...

Another Bookseller article I'd like to know more about. https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/outplaying-the-algorithms?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning%20Briefing

New blog post by Jake E Be my, be my Beta. I really need to spend less time on X. Once again, I’ve stumbled upon a heated discussion on social media that I can’t help but add my two cents/pence/shillings to, and this time, I can’t understand why or how it’s a discussion. It concerns those...

“When you want to move readers excitedly along, keep your sentences short and crisp. If you’re describing a languid trip down a lazy river, however, allow your sentence lengths to match that slower pace.” David A. Fryxell

Data and Insights from an RR Experiment (Yes, I am presenting this as a research paper. It's the closest I'll ever get to my own academic publication.) Abstract/Summary I posted Volume I (40 chapters) of a planned four-volume series on Royal Road as free serialized fiction. My main goals were...

New blog post by Jake E Dems the rulez Once again, I find myself writing about an argument I stumbled upon on X (Can’t they agree on anything over there?) and I just had to offer my thoughts on it in case anyone was interested. The argument in question? Writing rules, do they have a point...

‘Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.' Anne McCaffrey

Hi there, amazing to have found this place - I'm hoping to get some advice... I have written a novel, Life's Journey with the Occasional Alien, and really could use some fresh eyes on it to give me some honest opinions. Please feel free to drop me a line. Roy